Editorial: Step down, Mr. Abelove

Published 10:06 pm, Monday, December 4, 2017

Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove sits next to his attorney William Dreyer as Columbia County Court Judge Jonathan Nichols indicts him on two official misconduct charges and one charge of 1st degree perjury for his handling of an April 2016 fatal shooting by Troy Police Sgt. Randall French of Edson Thevenin at the Rensselaer County Court House on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, in Troy, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union) less

Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove sits next to his attorney William Dreyer as Columbia County Court Judge Jonathan Nichols indicts him on two official misconduct charges and one charge of 1st ... more

Everyone charged with a crime has a right to a presumption of innocence, and to their day in court. But what about when the defendant is a prosecutor himself?

That conflict alone should be reason enough for Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove to step down, or for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to begin the process of removing him.

The indictment against Mr. Abelove, however, is not the only issue here. There's also the problem of his competence — or, rather, the lack of it.

Mr. Abelove stands charged with two counts of official misconduct and one count of perjury in the first degree in connection with his handling of the shooting in April 2016 of Edson Thevenin by Troy Police Sergeant Randall French.

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Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, acting under an executive order by Gov. Cuomo that directs the attorney general to serve as special prosecutor in instances in which unarmed civilians are killed by police, is pursuing the case against Mr. Abelove — who could well be Exhibit A in the case for that executive order.

After the shooting of Mr. Thevenin, Mr. Abelove — who has publicly disagreed with the governor's order — quickly took the case to a grand jury, which swiftly decided not to charge the officer. It later emerged that Mr. Abelove had granted Mr. French immunity from prosecution to testify before the grand jury. Let the absurdity of immunizing an officer whose actions are the very thing in question sink in. Mr. Abelove also failed to bring to the grand jury the testimony of two eyewitnesses to the event.

All this transpired, Mr. Schneiderman says, after his office had signalled it was reviewing whether the case fell under his jurisdiction. Whatever the outcome of the charges against Mr. Abelove, it is all too clear he rushed the Troy case in defiance of the governor's order — an order, remember, that was issued because of the perception that local district attorneys are too close to police.

Then there's Mr. Abelove's job performance. As detailed by the Times Union's Kenneth C. Crowe II, at least 400 felony cases handled by the Rensselaer County District Attorney's office between January 2016 and March 2017 were never presented to a grand jury; 38 percent were dismissed by local courts. Even accounting for what Mr. Abelove estimates were about 30 bad cases that he inherited, that's a high rate for a district attorney who ran for office complaining about how so many cases fell through the cracks.

Mr. Abelove certainly deserves his day in court, though he probably should not assume he'll be lucky enough to face a prosecutor as incompetent as he is. Nor should he confuse his right to a fair trial with some perceived entitlement to his job.

The People of Rensselaer County also deserve their day in court, especially when it comes to keeping criminals off the street. The district attorney is, in that sense, their lawyer. It's time they had a new one without the cloud of an indictment or such a poor record of performance. If Mr. Abelove won't exit on his own, Gov. Cuomo should show him the door.